The Jade Bracelet

Have you ever read a story that transported you to another time and place so completely that it was a physical shock to put the book down? Author Wilma Wall accomplished this goal for me with her latest book, The Jade Bracelet. I have to confess, I was not drawn to the subject matter but having been requested to read the book, I did.
Now I’m glad I did.
The Jade Bracelet is told in third person but has only one POV throughout. I came to understand Elsa Meier and identified with her first as a child, then as a young woman and then finally as a wife and mother. What I found most interesting is that so much of Elsa’s childhood parallels Ms. Wall’s growing up years as a daughter of missionaries stationed in China and I would love to know just how much is autobiographical.


Elsa’s later years detour from the author’s but the story keeps you enthralled all the way from China to California and back to China again, authentically viewing through a child’s eyes and again through the eyes of an adult.
Any woman can relate whether she has been a missionary or not, whether she has lived outside her home country or not. This book transcends locale and rests on relationships and learning to get them right—three generations trying to do just that. I highly recommend this book and look forward to more from Ms. Wall.